THREE LAKES
Oct. 9, 2013
Courtesy of the News-Review and The Three Lakes News
Page 11
Three Lakes Fire Department
moves equipment into Fire Station 2
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BY GARY RIDDERBUSCH
NEWS-REVIEW EDITOR
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The Three Lakes Fire Department is
putting the finishing touches on its new
Fire Station 2, located east of the airport
on Highway 32.
The new fire station will help the department respond to fires more efficiently on the east side of the town, according to Fire Chief Dave Kirby, who
replaced retired Chief Herb Stuckart
during the year.
“It’s going to help us respond in a
quicker manner because some of the
firefighters live on the east side of the
town,” said Kirby. “If anything happens
along Highway 32 and we can’t get by,
we’ll have emergency personnel coming
from both directions.”
The chief added that faster responding times would allow the department to
quickly size up situations to determine
whether outside assistance is needed.
The station was bid for construction
at $185,000. A well, septic and landscaping brought the total to nearly
$250,000, according to Kirby, a former
assistant chief and 29-year veteran of
the department.
“The facility has two bays, a restroom
and a small kitchen area that is still
being completed,” he said. “It also features a donated awning over the front
door and a sign dedicated to former
Chief Herb Stuckart.”
To pay for the facility, the Three
Lakes Fire Department contributed
funding toward the well and septic and
has agreed to provide the town with additional money generated through its
annual fundraisers.
“There has been a lot of community
support for the station, including
fundraising from the annual Shoot-Out
and Fly-In,” said Kirby. “We get a
tremendous amount of local support.”
Although faster responding times
could mean lower insurance costs for
Three Lakes residents, the chief said the
bottom line is to save lives in an emergency.
The new station currently is housing
the department’s ladder truck, a brush
truck and an Oneida County Haz-Mat
response trailer. Kirby said the goal is to
have a small pumper at the station.
“We also built the parking lot large
enough so it can be a staging area if
there would be a large wildland fire in
the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest,” said Kirby.
Meanwhile, the department also
added a pump and water gun unit for its
rescue boat, which was purchased last
year.
The pump unit, which can be re-
The Three Lakes Fire Deparmtent is now housing trucks in the new
Fire Station 2 located east of the airport on Highway 32. The sec-
moved from the boat with the simple removal of several pins, cost $10,000.
Funds for the unit came through donations from the community and the Three
Lakes Fire Department Auxiliary.
The unit features a 550-gallons-perminute pump and 21?2-inch hose which
can be used as a supply line to a
portable water tank on the shore. The
water gun can be used to spray water
from the lake to a burning building on
the shoreline or on an island. A large
hose is used to draft water from the
lake.
The 16-foot rescue boat, with a 40horsepower motor, cost the department
approximately $15,000 and was funded
through the town, donations and the
auxiliary.
“This will help us tremendously with
the safety aspect, as far as getting our
own people there and getting patients
out without injuring them further,” said
Kirby. “We will use it for on-water fire
suppression and for rescues anywhere
on the Chain.”
The department purchased two new
fire and rescue vehicles in 2011, including a multipurpose brush truck and a
utility-terrain vehicle (UTV).
The Ford F-350 four-wheel drive
truck is officially called Brush 2 when
ond station was constructed to improve fire and rescue response
time on the east side of the town.
—NEWS-REVIEW PHOTO
paged out, but it will be used more as a
multipurpose vehicle for the department, according to Lt. Lee Tauer.
“It will be the first truck out for rescues in the summer and fall, it will be a
brush truck in the spring, and in the
winter it will be used for hauling our
trail rescue equipment,” said Tauer.
“The truck is equipped with traction
tires for winter travel.”
The $45,000 truck was funded
through the town of Three Lakes’ 2011
budget. It doubles as a travel truck for
training and a vehicle to transport items
for fundraisers.
The department also took delivery of
a Polaris Ranger HD 800 UTV in 2011.
The Ranger features side-by-side seating and electronic power steering, according to Tauer.
The UTV is outfitted with a Frontier
track system for off-road rescues during
the winter months. The back of the
Ranger is equipped with a Stokes basket to transport an injured person as
well as a seat for an emergency medical
technician (EMT).
The $15,000 UTV was funded
through a $4,500 Plum Creek challenge
grant, a $3,000 grant from Trig’s
(through employee Linda Remington)
and the remainder from Three Lakes
Fire Department fundraisers.
The Three Lakes Fire Department
also purchased several pieces of vehicle
extrication equipment in 2011, including a new Jaws of Life and cutters. The
state-of-the-art equipment is used by
rescue personnel at an accident scene.
Rescue personnel said the old cutter
had 80,000 pounds per square inch (psi)
of cutting force, while the new cutter has
260,000 psi of cutting force, which will
cut through the new alloys used in vehicles. The department regularly trains
new members on the proper use of the
cutters.
The new equipment was funded by
the auxiliary. The fire department owes
much of its success to the tens of thousands of dollars in proceeds given by the
local auxiliary group over the past 21
years. Since 1992, when the auxiliary
was formed, it has helped the fire department purchase many items important to the team of firefighters. The auxiliary was developed, after two major
fires in downtown Three Lakes, to take
food and water to firefighters on scene
as needed.
Kirby said he couldn’t stress enough
the importance of the auxiliary for the
To THREE LAKES, Pg. 13